MMA nearly lost one of its best featherweight fighters this past year when former Bellator MMA champion Pat Curran nearly walked away from the sport for good.

Curran (19-5 MMA, 9-2 BMMA) has dealt with severe depression and anxiety issues since he was a child due to a case of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and said he was at his lowest around the time of his Bellator 106 title loss to Daniel Straus (22-4 MMA, 9-1 BMMA) in November.

The situation got so bad, in fact, that Curran was ready to hang up his gloves and return to his former profession as a heat and conditioning technician.

“I was at that point where I was considering moving back in with my parents,” Curran told MMAjunkie. “I didn’t know what I wanted and didn’t know if I wanted to keep pursuing my dream of being an MMA fighter, so I pretty much fell out of love with the sport.

“I wasn’t enjoying myself. I wasn’t enjoying my life, and when you get to that point ,you have to find a way around that. I got the point where maybe MMA wasn’t for me and I had to find something else.”

When Curran first started martial arts as a high school wrestler and eventually graduated to MMA, he realized the physical nature of the sport was a good way to deal with his ADHD. And for a long time, his issues were tamed.

But when he started to develop into one of the sport’s most gifted fighters and surged up the Bellator rankings and won a title, the pressure again began to mount – so much so that it eventually became unbearable.

Loss of motivation

He said his depression and anxiety increased gradually as he moved deeper into his Bellator career, and while he was able to deal with everything well enough to claim a title and twice defend his belt, the situation came to a head around the time of his last fight.

“The past couple years have been really weighing on me, especially leading into my last fight,” said Curran, who’s ranked No. 7 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA featherweight rankings. “I had that mentality that I was ready to lose. I didn’t want to keep pursuing MMA. I thought about quitting. I just wasn’t happy with the way things were in my life, and I just didn’t want it anymore. That was my mindset in my last fight.”

The desire to compete was so miniscule that Curran’s training camp lost all structure. He said he was basically his own head coach, and when someone would try to provide him with guidance, he would look the other way.

“I got to the point where I was just not really listening to anybody,” Curran said. “I was running my own training, and if I felt like taking a day or two off, I would.”

Curran believes his lack of preparation showed in the fight. Straus dominated him for the better part of five rounds and took the 145-pound title that Curan held for nearly two years.

The memories of that performance are still fresh for Curran. The 26-year-old admits it’s a difficult to look back on that fight because while his physical person was there, his mind was not.

“I didn’t watch it for a long time just because I knew it wasn’t me,” Curran said. “I know how I was feeling during that fight, and I just wasn’t in it. When I say I’m not in it, I mean like a cloud. It’s really hard to explain. It was almost like a fog, and I just wasn’t thinking correctly. With all the personal issues adding up over time, it really affected me for my training camp and in that fight.”

Seeking professional help

So with his decision to exit the sport all but decided just six months ago, how does Curran find himself here, just a few days out from Bellator 112, where he’ll meet Straus for a third time with the Bellator championship on the line?

The answer is twofold, he said. First, after a long inner-struggle and many years of bottled-up emotions, he finally sought out a mental health professional and faced his problems head-on.

“I was at the point where I didn’t want to fight anymore, so that was my last chance to go and seek help,” Curran said. “I finally saw a doctor, and he prescribed certain medication that has helped me get through my depression and anxiety. Just recently in the last month or two, I’ve really made a huge difference in my life and just my training in general. I’m a lot more focused now and a lot happier.

“Everything with my anxiety and my training is going great. I’m feeling great, and this is what needed to happen.”

The second solution was to seek the advisement of his cousin Jeff Curran, a former fighter who recently retired after more than 15 years as a professional.

Curran said his older cousin has played a critical role in getting his career back on track, so much so that he assumed the position of head coach ahead of Friday’s Spike TV-televised showdown with Straus.

“I talked with my cousin, and he pretty much said he’s going to do everything he can to help me through this and get me back to being a champion again,” Curran said. “Having my cousin there and his support – now he’s my head coach. My training has been completely changed. I did a complete 180, and the difference is my overall confidence and being happy and wanting to be a champion again.

“I want this really bad, and as a fighter, you have to want it. You have to have that fire inside you, and I lost it just because I was going through a lot of personal issues. I have it back now, and I’m ready to go to war on Friday night.”

Regaining confidence

Having his cousin by his side has bolstered Curran’s confidence. He now has the support of someone who knows him just as well as himself and can push him to the limit both in and out of training.

“This has been the best training camp I’ve ever had by far, and this is a complete 180 from my other training camps,” Curran said. “Jeff helps so much mentally, and mental is the biggest part of the fight game. It’s pretty much all mental, and right now, I’m 100 percent there.

“For this fight, mentally, I’ve already won. I already have this fight won.”

Friday’s Bellator 112 event at Horseshoe Hammond Casino in Indiana marks the third meeting between Curran and Straus. Curran won the first meeting in 2009 by knockout, and in the rematch, Straus implemented a wrestling-heavy game plan to control the fight en route to a decisive decision win.

While some of Curran’s critics argue he shouldn’t have received a title shot because he didn’t win a Bellator tournament, he’ll be vindicated when he regains the belt.

“The critics don’t really bother me, but at the same time, I’m taking that as fuel and fire,” Curran said. “I love proving people wrong and being the underdog. So when everyone says I don’t deserve this, I’m going to show you I deserve this, and I’m going to kill him on Friday night.”

While Curran would understandably have reservations about taking another fight with Straus so shortly after such a dark period in his life, he’s eager to get the win after what he considers the poorest showing of his career. With his depression and anxiety issues under control, Curran said he’s finally ready to start a new chapter in his life.

“Everything happens for a reason, and after my last loss, it really put me at an all-time low,” Curran said. “Once I got over that severe depression and all the problems I was having, it’s pretty much been all sunshine. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

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